


When I knew you first

by a_leaf



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Flashbacks, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Gyuhao are main, Healing, Slow Burn, other relationships are side
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:22:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28474629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_leaf/pseuds/a_leaf
Summary: Seventeen members navigate the struggles of university and working life. Through it all, Xu Minghao and Kim Mingyu try to figure out what they are to each other.
Relationships: Choi Seungcheol | S.Coups/Yoon Jeonghan, Jeon Wonwoo/Wen Jun Hui | Jun, Kim Mingyu/Xu Ming Hao | The8
Comments: 7
Kudos: 30





	1. Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> Happy New Year! Thanks for checking this out :) Hope you enjoy

Mingyu heard Soonyoung’s excited yell even before he spotted their table. Of course Seokmin and Soonyoung chose a place like this, a rowdy open-air setting with colored lights strung from every post. Despite his fatigue after a long flight and hours of unpacking, he couldn’t help but break into a grin as Seokmin popped up to wave wildly at him. 

“Mingyu! Get over here.” His friend bounced over to envelop him in a tight hug. “You’re just in time. Everyone else is here already, except Seungkwan of course.”

“It’s good to see you too, Min-ah.” Mingyu gently pried the other’s arms off of himself. “Now please let me breathe.” 

“I know you love me.” Seokmin elbowed him playfully before ushering him over to their overcrowded table, which was already stained with evidence of gross overconsumption. Glasses of beer, trays of pizza, and nearly empty baskets of fries littered the space between his friends. Mingyu scanned them, half affectionate and half exasperated.

After greeting the older boys, who were busy telling horror stories about graduate school and work life, Mingyu started to move down the table, searching for a sliver of space and waving to his other friends. He was reaching over to high five Vernon when a pair of wide eyes peering at him through round golden frames made him jerk to a stop and instinctively curse under his breath. 

Xu Minghao. Looking pristine as always in a sharp black blazer over a neat white shirt. “I am so not ready for this,” Mingyu muttered, feeling himself slip into panic mode as he quickly reversed his steps. 

Seungcheol jumped as Mingyu shook his shoulder roughly. “Actually, hyung, can I sit with you?” Mingyu could barely hear his own voice over the sound of his pounding heart.

“Ah?” The other boy startled. “Of cou-” he began when a loud cough cut him off. 

Across the table, Jeonghan raised an eyebrow pointedly. “I mean, there’s also an open spot by Ming-uh Chan down there,” the oldest offered, flustered under Jeonghan’s excruciating stare. “Bit more room on that side.”

“No thanks.” Mingyu replied, feigning calmness as he pulled a chair over. He ignored the knowing looks exchanged between his friends and set his gaze determinedly on the fries in front of him. Seungcheol shrugged as he gave up his food, earning him an eye roll from Jeonghan.

The two older boys watched Mingyu silently for a moment as the younger pretended to focus on his fries. Inside, Mingyu’s mind reeled. 

He had expected that Minghao would show up today. Thinking about it, however, was different from really seeing him in person, hearing his voice and tinkling laugh only a few feet away. Even early on, Mingyu thought he would always be able to recognize that sound, no matter where he was or how much time had passed. He swallowed awkwardly and reached for the nearest cup.

“Slow down, that food isn’t going anywhere.” Mingyu felt a hand rubbing his back and grunted, finally looking up. 

“How have you been?” Seungcheol asked softly, gently sweeping the younger boy’s bangs to the side as Mingyu shrugged in reply. He paused before continuing, and Mingyu shot him a glare. 

“Think carefully about your next question, hyung.”

“Ouch, you kids are getting so disrespectful lately.” Seungcheol brushed the comment off easily. “How’s the apartment? Who are you living with?”

“It’s really nice, actually. It’s just me and Seokmin this year, which will be fun but also tough.”

“No more Wonwoo to help clean up Seokmin’s mess?” the older boy teased.

“At least I don’t have to worry about hyung’s constant all nighters anymore.”

“What about your terrible sleep schedule?” Jeonghan cut in. He shoved a roll into the younger boy’s mouth and flicked his forehead lightly. “Take care of yourself, you big baby.”

Mingyu rolled his eyes. “I’m fine. You should be making sure Seungcheol survives his first job.”

“Hey, I-” Seungcheol started to protest when Soonyoung shot up.

“Okay!” Soonyoung called over the table, clapping his hands. “Enough with the old chit chat. Let’s play some games.”

“Call! Whoever loses the first game has to pay for drinks,” Jeonghan joined in excitedly.

“Or pay for the whole meal,” Joshua suggested, grinning as he clinked glasses with Jeonghan.

After a heated debate over whether the older boys should be obligated to pay, Seungcheol picked the frying pan game, and Jihoon, Vernon, and Joshua ended up as the losers after three rounds.

“I always pay anyway,” Jihoon complained half-heartedly.

Seokmin beamed at him. “Thanks hyung! That’s why you’re the best.”

“Okay, enough. Let’s play something more exciting.” Chan bounced up and down in his seat.

“Ayy, I like the way you think,” Jeonghan cheered, setting a stack of paper slips on the table. “My choice is the King game.” The other boys groaned in response as they each grabbed a paper.

“Yoon Jeonghan always cheats in this game.”

“Right, he’s always the King.”

“You know he wants to cause trouble when he chooses this game,” Minghao said with a disapproving look, causing Seokmin to burst into laughter.

Jeonghan pressed a hand to his chest, his jaw dropping open in mock offence. “I’m just trying to make it fun!” He flipped over his slip. “Alright then, for the first round, I will be King.”

“We already knew it, just say your command.”

“Shall we see some aegyo?” Jeonghan peered at his friends with a bright expression.

“I’m scared,” Seokmin whispered. 

“One and eleven, come out.” 

Wonwoo sighed with relief as Jihoon slumped soullessly and Chan looked disgusted. “As long as it’s not me,” Joshua shrugged.

Vernon and Jun pulled out their phones to film as the two unlucky ones stood forehead to forehead and sang a cute song to each other. “Jihoon hyung really seems to be suffering,” Seungkwan teased. Jihoon’s face took on a pained expression when he sat back down.

“So cute,” Jeonghan cooed, patting Chan’s head affectionately.

The next round, Soonyoung pulled the slip with the crown. “Number six, stand on your chair and scream horanghae to the whole restaurant.”

“That’s way too harsh,” Jun protested as Minghao and Chan pulled him out of his seat. “How am I supposed to do that?”

“You can do it.” Soonyoung raised a fist encouragingly. “Fighting!”

“Unless you want to try one of Jeonghan’s nightmare milkshakes instead.” 

Jun reluctantly climbed onto his chair. He glanced nervously around the restaurant and screamed something unintelligible before quickly collapsing into his seat. 

Immediately, Soonyoung and Seungkwan leapt up, waving their hands angrily. “Do it properly. We want to hear it nicely.”

“Horanghae!” Jun nearly fell back down, burying his face into Minghao’s shoulder. “You guys are the worst.” Minghao giggled as he embraced the older. 

Jeonghan glanced at Mingyu and gathered the slips again. “Next round, let’s go.”

“I’m gonna be the King this time.” Jun’s gaze was dark.

Chan cracked up as he took the last slip. “Woah, look at Jeonghan hyung’s smile.”

“The King this time is me again.” Jeonghan waved his slip with a smirk as the others groaned.

“You’re definitely cheating, Yoon Jeonghan.” Seungcheol pointed accusingly.

“Prove it.”

“Yah, stop fighting like elementary schoolers,” Jihoon interrupted. “Jeonghan, put your tongue back in your mouth and give us a command.”

Jeonghan tapped his finger casually against his lower lip. “Hmm, how about eight and nine. Take a love shot.” Mingyu gripped his paper, heart sinking, as Joshua wheezed, spraying cola all over Jeonghan. “Shua! Gross!”

“You deserved that.” Joshua said, clearly with no regrets. Mingyu whole-heartedly agreed.

“Who is it?” Seungcheol spotted Mingyu nervously tracing the “9” written on his paper. “Ah Mingyu is nine! Where’s eight?” 

“Here, here!” Minghao jumped up, desperately trying to snatch the slip of paper back from Jun’s hand. “Minghao is eight.” 

Mingyu watched with wide eyes as Jun dragged Minghao over, and then they were standing face to face. Minghao’s face was unreadable.

Soonyoung came over with a cup in each hand. Neither of them took one. 

Mingyu took a breath and jerked his head at Soonyoung. “What do you think?”

Minghao remained expressionless. “I don’t think this kind of thing should be done between people like you and me.”

Something inside of Mingyu ached, but he forced it down. “I agree.” He smiled icily at Jeonghan. “Sorry, I’m not doing it.”

“Ay, that’s lame.” Jeonghan shook his head as he grabbed a cup and started filling it with random ingredients. Mingyu shivered internally as he watched a packet of ketchup, two shots, some lemon juice painfully collected by Seungkwan, and at least a full spoon of salt enter the mix. As expected, the punishment for ruining Jeonghan’s plans was harsh.

Jeonghan pushed the mixture towards the pair. “Enjoy.” Mingyu swore he saw something green bubbling inside. 

“You can drink whatever. I’ll finish the rest,” Minghao mumbled quickly, carefully avoiding eye contact. 

“Oh? What a generous offer.” For a moment, Mingyu considered just handing the full glass over. Minghao deserved that much at least, but it would be too predictable. Two could play this game.

Mingyu picked up the glass, keeping his eyes on Minghao, and drained it with heavy gulps. He handed the empty glass to the boy in front of him and walked back to his seat without checking the other’s expression.

“Wow, Mingyu, when did you become so cool?” Jeonghan said, leaning back in his chair. He kicked Seungcheol lightly. 

“What?” Seungcheol mouthed helplessly. 

The other boy’s face clearly indicated, “If you’re not going to do anything about this, then I will.” Seungcheol preferred to pretend he didn’t understand.

Jeonghan glanced down the table before eying Mingyu again. “You’re seriously not going to make up with him?” Mingyu only sipped at his drink in response. “It’s senior year.”

“So?”

“You’ve already wasted two years, you want to waste your last one too?” Jeonghan asked, voice rising. “I don’t think you need me to tell you what a dumb idea that is.”

“Why is it my job to make up? Why can’t it be him?” Mingyu slammed his cup down, making Jeonghan and Seungcheol flinch. “Didn’t you hear what he just said? You think I wanted to drink that disgusting concoction?”

He looked at the other two, embarrassed when he saw their shocked expressions. “Sorry for yelling,” the younger boy mumbled. “It’s just, it’s always me who has to reach out first.” He stared at the table a moment longer before pushing his chair back. “This is stupid. I’m leaving.”

“Mingyu, wait--”

“Please hyung, I’m tired,” Mingyu said, pushing Seungcheol’s arm away. “Let’s talk tomorrow?”

Seungcheol hesitated, but nodded. “Get some sleep.” Mingyu waved in acknowledgement as he walked away. The older boy sat down with a sigh. 

“Why’d you let him go?” Jeonghan asked, turning to glance at the other end of the table. Seungcheol followed his gaze to catch a certain maroon-haired boy watching Mingyu’s retreating figure with an unreadable expression. When he noticed the two boys watching him, Minghao’s attention quickly dropped to his drink. “They’ll be okay, won’t they?”

“They better be.” Seungcheol really hoped this year wouldn’t follow the trend of the past two. It still baffled him, and everyone in their friend group, how two people who once talked on for hours about any random topic could so quickly become strangers.


	2. Introduction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flash back time, it's gonna be a long one. Lots of important set-up for later chapters

Minghao had not particularly enjoyed the first week of his freshman year, but the second week was even worse. As the excitement of entering college began to wear off, the students rushed to adjust to new schedules as assignments and deadlines poured in. 

“Jun, please come eat with me.” Minghao typed frantically into his phone. He tapped his fingers impatiently on his desk as he waited for a response. Meanwhile, the other students raced to exit the classroom. His deskmate waved as he left, and Minghao waved back politely. The other boy seemed nice enough, although his strong accent combined with Minghao’s limited Korean had prevented them from having any meaningful extended conversation. Minghao wasn’t even sure they knew each other’s names. 

As the class emptied, Minghao began throwing stuff quickly into his bag, hoping Jun would answer so he could figure out where to go before he started getting weird looks from the professor. His phone buzzed just as he threw one backpack strap over his shoulder. Glancing down, Minghao’s heart sank.

“Sorry bud! I need to talk to my advisor since I didn’t get into half of my requested classes.” Trying to get into classes at this time was undoubtedly asking for a headache and disappointment. Minghao groaned. He had purposely chosen only courses with large capacities to avoid scheduling issues (and small group discussions), yet the notoriously difficult course scheduling system was still managing to give him anxiety. 

“Can’t you do it later?” he sent, adding a crying emoji.

“No can do, gotta make sure I graduate on time,” Jun replied with a heart. “You can do it! Now’s your chance to make new friends.”

“I’d rather you just didn’t graduate,” Minghao sent back, only half joking. Lunch time to Minghao meant facing noise and crowds, an extreme sport that required Jun’s support. He sighed and prepared himself for a painful meal.

After scarfing down his food and fleeing the common area, Minghao looked at the clock and realized two things. First, this was the fastest meal he had taken since the start of the semester. Second, he had over an hour before his next class. He thought back to his problem set due in two days and raced to the studio, giving a quick apology to his future self.

The art building had quickly become his favorite place on campus. The blocky, modern style architecture, with floor-to-ceiling windows and plenty of colorful seating, made it Minghao’s ideal hideout. 

Another plus was the student art lining every wall, which Minghao often stopped to admire. Today, a picture of model Yoon J. taken by photographer Hong J. caught his attention. Even if the technique was somewhat lacking (although Minghao wouldn’t consider himself a photography expert in the slightest), he was sucked in by the model’s angelic features and flowy cream blouse contrasting with the heavy shadows surrounding him. Minghao only managed to tear his eyes away when he heard someone coming down the hall.

As always, he took refuge in the empty painting studio. Even if he wasn’t painting, he liked to sit at the color-splattered tables to sketch or work whenever he could. Dropping his bag to the floor, he sank down gratefully into his seat. It was blissfully quiet. Minghao closed his eyes as a wave of relief crashed over him. For a moment, all he wanted to feel was the stillness of the classroom. 

His mind soon wandered to his social situation. As much as Minghao appreciated alone time, it wasn’t as though he actively avoided meeting new people. Of course he wanted to have the ideal, life-lifelong-friendship-forming college experience if he could. But between figuring out his financial aid and housing status during orientation, desperately crafting his four year plan last week, and trying to adjust to living in a whole new country on top of all that, he seemed to have missed the initial window during which all the friend groups were formed.

Minghao sighed, knowing he had brought this upon himself by choosing this school for it’s prestigious fine arts program. No matter what, he was determined to stand by his decision. Opening his eyes, he took a moment to let the colors adjust before pulling out his sketchbook. 

The pages were full of people, landscapes, and abstract shapes. Although some were completed, Minghao felt unsatisfied with most, pausing to add a few small details to every other drawing as he flipped through. When he finally reached a blank page, he stopped to organize his thoughts and emotions. Rather than first trying to decide on a picture, he just started drawing lines and shapes, blending them as he pleased.

Too soon, Minghao glanced at the clock and jolted up when he saw how much time had passed. He didn’t even remember how to get to the building his next class was in. 

By the time he arrived outside, heart thumping and seven minutes late, the professor was already deep into his lecture. This was one of his relatively smaller classes too. He slunk into a seat in the back row, avoiding the professor’s disapproving gaze.

“Now, who can tell me the correct approach to solving these types of problems?” the man said, turning away from the blackboard. 

The only response he got was students ducking their heads down, suddenly finding an intense need to take notes even though there was nothing else on the board. The professor frowned and gestured to the back. “Student in the back, how do we solve this example?”

Minghao glanced around, praying the professor wasn’t talking to him. “Yes, you, with the thin glasses. Stand up.” Minghao cursed his bad eyesight as he rose.

“What’s your name?”

“Xu Minghao, sir.” Minghao felt his face grow warm as too many pairs of eyes turned to look at him.

“Okay Minghao, what’s the correct formula we should use for this problem?” 

Minghao tried to focus as he squinted at the question. Normally, he considered himself an okay student. He never intentionally slacked off with his work. Put on the spot, however, his mind felt stuck. As irrelevant thoughts about the practical use of math effectively blocked out anything helpful, Minghao struggled not to let the panic show on his face. He barely even registered a voice to his left speaking up.

“Professor, I don’t think that was in the assigned reading for last night.”

The man frowned. “It’s clearly stated and explained in section 1.4.”

Minghao looked over to see a boy with light brown hair shrugging his shoulders. “I thought I heard you say 1.3 and 1.5”. 

The professor seemed unconvinced. “Is that true?” he asked, looking at his class. “I certainly intended to assign 1.4.” 

After a moment of incoherent mumbles, the professor frowned. “Alright, sit down for now. Make sure to do the correct reading and arrive on time to class in the future.” Finally, he turned his gaze away from Minghao, who heaved a giant sigh of relief. “This class is doable but requires effort and discipline. Once you start to fall behind, it’s very hard to catch back up.”

Minghao slumped back into his seat and frantically began scribbling down notes, determined not to catch the professor’s attention again. 

“Alright, please read 1.6 to 1.8 for next class. And 1.4, since apparently I didn’t assign that last time.” By the time class was over, Minghao’s whole wrist was sore. Stretching his neck to the side, he jumped when he saw his neighbor staring at him.

“Hey, are you okay?” the boy asked in a gentler voice than Minghao expected from someone of his size.

“Oh, thanks for earlier by the way.”

The other boy shrugged. “I don’t even know what the assigned reading was.” 

“What?” Minghao gaped. “That’s absurd. Did you just not do it?”

“No one ever does.” 

“Are you serious? Do people not use textbooks here?” Minghao couldn’t decide if he was more horrified or amused.

“Only if you want to suffer.” For some reason, the completely serious expression on the other’s face made Minghao crack up. 

He quickly calmed down when he noticed the other boy staring oddly at him. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” the other blurted, quickly turning away. “I just … thought of something.” He suddenly became absorbed in his notes from class, even though he had barely written anything down. 

After a moment of silence, Minghao started fidgeting, debating whether he could just leave or if he should wait for the other boy first. He didn’t want to offend someone who had helped him. Fiddling with his phone, he noticed he had a message and opened it to see a picture of Jun grinning next to a pot of ramen. Looking closer, Minghao realized the background was definitely his own apartment’s kitchen. 

“Yah, this hyung.”

“Did something happen?” Minghao’s savior was staring at him again, looking alarmed now.

“No, uh, kind of.” Minghao was already rushing to leave, seizing the excuse to escape. “I gotta go take care of something. Thanks again.” In a flash, he was out the door, leaving the other boy half-standing.

“What the, I didn’t even get a chance to get his number,” the boy muttered, watching the small figure dashing down the hallway. “Xu Minghao, huh?”

  
  


“Hyung, get off.” Minghao pulled at Jun’s leg. “Yah, my sheets are clean hyung.” 

“Stop fussing.” Jun lay sprawled on Minghao’s bed, squeezing the life out of Minghao’s precious golden retriever plushie. He rolled onto his back to face Minghao upside down, a huge grin on his face. “How was your day? How did lunch go?”

“It lasted about one second, thanks for that.” Minghao did not look amused.

“Aw, did you miss me, my baby?” Jun reached out to scratch under Minghao’s chin, cooing. “You’re so cute.”

Minghao slapped the other boy’s hand away. “As if. The only thing I missed was your ability to distract anyone in a five foot radius so I can escape.” 

Jun pouted. “So cold, Minghao. Get over here!”

“Gosh, I can’t believe you’re older than me.” Minghao gave in and flopped down on the bed next to Jun, who immediately turned to wrap the younger in a hug.

“I bet you didn’t even try to make any friends today.” Jun ran his fingers through the other’s hair affectionately. “Anyone would be happy to be friends with such a cool person like you.”

“I was a bit busy getting picked on by my stats professor,” Minghao sighed. He closed his eyes and let Jun comfort him.

The older boy’s eyes lit up as Minghao recounted what had happened in class. “Minghao, you fool,” he yelped excitedly, grabbing the other’s shoulders and shaking him. “Please tell me you got that boy’s name.”

“Who?” Minghao tilted his head questioningly. 

“The boy from class, duh!” Jun was almost shouting.

“No? Why would I?”

“Argh, you drive my crazy, you clueless worm.” Jun grabbed the plushie and raised it to smack Minghao. “You. Need. To. Make. Friends.” Each word was punctuated with a sharp smack.

“Ahh, hyung, that hurts.” Minghao snatched the plushie away. “I’m never going to leave you. You’re stuck with me.” He flopped on top of Jun and wrapped his arms around him. 

“Eww, get off, get off,” Jun screeched, pushing the other away. Minghao immediately wrapped back around Jun, squeezing tighter until the other gave up. “How did your other classes go?”

“Okay, actually.” Minghao generally tried to look positively. “They were all pretty interesting. The painting studio is a dream, too.” Jun hummed, as if he knew there was something else. “It’s just philosophy, I guess. There are a lot of terms I don’t know, or that I do know, but just in the wrong language.” Minghao felt Jun nodding next to him and once again felt grateful for the older boy’s presence. Running into Jun during move-in a few weeks before school started was the biggest blessing Minghao received since moving to Korea. “It’ll be hard, but I’ll just have to work harder I guess.”

“Don’t over work,” Jun murmured into the younger boy’s hair. “It’s okay to ask for extra help if you need it.”

“Yea, yea.” Minghao moved away as Jun started pressing kisses to his cheek. “Stop being so sappy. Did you get your schedule fixed?” To his dismay, Jun shook his head.

“My advisor was so unhelpful,” the older boy groaned. “I probably won’t be able to get into my elective, so I was looking for another one, but it’s literally impossible with my research schedule.” 

Minghao frowned. “I thought research was supposed to be really flexible?”

“Exactly, it’s supposed to be, right?” Minghao could tell a long Jun rant was coming up. “The graduate student who’s supervising my research is being impossible. He’s making me put in so much time, for so few credit hours, and everything is scheduled for his convenience.” Minghao patted Jun’s head encouragingly, trying to hide a smile, as the other continued to whine. “Why do we all have to adapt for him? Like who does he think he is? A tenured professor? He’s just some hotshot master’s student trying to get the professor’s approval like the rest of us.” Jun ended with a loud huff. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing, you’re just cute,” Minghao said, squishing Jun’s cheeks. “My cute little brother,” he cooed in Chinese. “What should I do with you?”

  
  


For once, Minghao arrived early to class. His usual philosophy was to enter as late as possible to save precious minutes and avoid suffering through awkward small talk. Today, though, the threat of receiving the professor’s disapproval again scared him more.

The one benefit was that most of the seats were still empty when he walked in. He strategically chose a seat to the far left in the middle row and buried his head in his notes, praying that no one would sit next to him. 

His dream shattered when someone tapped him on the shoulder barely a minute before class started. He looked up to see a familiar, bright face. “Xu Minghao, I thought it was you,” his savior from last class said. “It’s shocking to see you in class so early, though.”

“I know right? I wanted to avoid getting stuck next to you again,” Minghao said, keeping a straight face. For a second, the other froze, and Minghao worried that his joke had been too harsh. Then, the boy’s face broke into a wide smile. 

“Looks like you’re out of luck.” The other casually slid into the seat next to Minghao. “I like you, so you can be sure I’ll stick around for a while.”

Minghao decided he could make an exception just once. The boy had really saved him last class after all. “I guess I can let you live today.”

“Let me live? I think I could take you any day,” the other boy said with a cocky grin.

“Sure, sure.” Minghao waved a hand dismissively. The other boy didn’t need to know that Minghao had been practicing martial arts since he was a toddler. Besides, Minghao was too preoccupied with trying to decide whether or not he should ask the boy for his name, although he hated to take Jun’s advice. 

His thoughts were broken when the boy extended his hand. “I’m Mingyu, by the way. First year computer science major and culinary minor.”

“I’m Minghao, also a first year, double majoring in economics and visual arts.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second chapter here! Next chapter will be a bit more exciting, and it will be from Mingyu's perspective. Let me know what you think!


	3. New Encounters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mingyu and Seokmin make some new friends. Seungcheol has a party.

Mingyu felt slightly defeated as he scanned the tables, looking for his roommate. Ideally, he would be getting to know his favorite mysterious classmate over lunch, but Xu Minghao had declined his invitation with some mumbled excuses. Mingyu recognized a rejection when he heard one. At one point, Minghao had even tried to bring up an assignment for his intro painting class. That might have been believable, except Mingyu had been in that class before he switched to photography and knew that the first assignment wasn’t due until relatively late in the semester.

“Why the sad puppy face?” Seokmin asked as Mingyu set his tray down. “New crush on the mind?”

“He’s not a crush, I just want to be friends okay,” Mingyu complained. Seokmin raised his eyebrows but didn’t argue. “I managed to introduce myself and give him my number, but he wouldn’t give me his or eat lunch with us.”

Seokmin laughed so hard he almost fell out of his seat. “He took your number but hid his? And he refused your lunch date.” Mingyu glared as his roommate clapped. “Wah I respect him already. As expected of our Mingyu, you chose a strong one.”

“I even purposely went to class late so I could make sure to sit next to him.” Mingyu buried his face in his hands. “He still didn’t want to talk to me.”

“Going to class late?” Seokmin gasped dramatically. “This boy is a bad influence already.” 

Mingyu was struggling to come up with a clever reply when a boy with striking silver hair pounced on to Seokmin’s back. “There’s my baby!” he said with a cackle.

“Jeonghan hyung!” Seokmin turned around with an equally excited expression. “You came.”

“Of course, how could I ever leave you?” Jeonghan said, slinging an arm around Seokmin and sliding into the seat next to him. “Who’s your friend?”

“This is Mingyu! He’s my roommate, and also my best friend.” Seokmin smiled radiantly, like he was showing off his greatest treasure. “We’ve known each other for almost 15 years now. I know him almost as well as I know myself.”

“We’re that close, but you forgot to mention that you got adopted recently?” Mingyu said dryly. Leave it to Seokmin to pick up another parent figure within the first month of college.

“Jeonghan hyung was my orientation leader. He’s also a lead vocalist for one of the best acapella groups on campus,” Seokmin explained. 

“We are the best group,” Jeonghan corrected. “And Seventeen is much more than an acapella group. We’re a performance group that you,” he said, jabbing a finger at Seokmin, “could be part of very soon.”

“I got it, hyung, I’ve already signed up for an audition,” Seokmin said, stretching a finger out to connect with Jeonghan’s. 

Mingyu tilted his head. “You’ve been hiding all kinds of things from me, huh.” 

Seokmin shrugged helplessly and leaned closer to Mingyu to whisper, “He’s been marketing it to me all week. I’m beginning to think it’s some kind of cult, or maybe a pyramid scheme.”

Jeonghan glared. “I can hear you, you know. We’re just an extremely tight-knit family, not a cult.” 

“That seems like a thin line,” Mingyu whispered back to Seokmin. “I’m scared for you.”

“Stop making it seem worse than it is!” Jeonghan protested with a pout. “You’ll know once you get to meet some of the members and practice with us. I promise you’ll love it.”

“Okay, okay.” Seokmin patted the older gently. “I’m already convinced, anyway. Can’t wait to see this extremely tight-knit family.”

A devious smile bloomed on Jeonghan’s face. “Actually, there’s a party tonight at one of the rapper’s houses,” he said, wiggling an eyebrow. “Wanna come? It’s a great chance to see us in our natural environment.” He jerked his head at Mingyu. “You can come too. Everyone’s welcome.”

“A party? On a Thursday night?” Seokmin asked incredulously.

“Why not?” Jeonghan stood up momentarily to wave to a boy across the room. “It’s not like you have any assignments due yet.”

“Not this week, but next week,” Seokmin protested futilely. The older boy barely seemed to be paying any attention to his responses.

“Exactly. And that,” Jeonghan said, clapping Mingyu and Seokmin on the back, “is why now is the perfect time to party. Right, Seungcheol?”

Seokmin and Mingyu looked up to greet the newcomer. “I’m not stupid enough to agree to anything you say so easily,” Seungcheol said first to Jeonghan before turning to the younger boys. “Sorry about this one. I hope he hasn’t been scaring you too much.”

“No, no, not at all,” Seokmin rushed to say. “He’s been helping me a lot.”

Jeonghan beamed. “That’s my baby.”

A look of understanding appeared on Seongcheol’s face. “Ah, you must be Seokmin,” he said, reaching a hand out. “Hannie’s told me a lot about you.”

“Good things, I hope,” Seokmin said with a light laugh.

“How could anyone say anything bad about you,” Mingyu jumped in.

“Of course, I only have good things to say about you,” Jeonghan said, casually reaching over to steal a cookie off Seungcheol’s plate. Mingyu gave him a look of disgust. “What, it’s okay when you do it, but not when I do it?”

“I’m his best friend. We’re practically the same person.” 

“So? He’s my child.”

“Ahem.” Seungcheol interrupted their squabble with a pointed look at Jeonghan.

“Right, this old guy is Seungcheol by the way. The party tonight is at his house.”

Seokmin lit up. “Ah, I’ve heard a lot about you too. You’re the leader.”

“I wish I wasn’t,” Seungcheol said, shaking his head sadly. “I can’t imagine Jeonghan’s told you many good things about me.” 

Jeonghan nodded vigorously. “Correct.”

Seungcheol rolled his eyes and turned to Mingyu. “Is Jeonghan trying to recruit you too?”

“Fortunately, no,” Mingyu said with an exaggerated sigh of relief. “I’m just collateral to get Seokmin on board, since we’ve been together since forever. I’m Mingyu by the way.”

“Nice to meet you, Mingyu.” 

“You should join too, just having your face would be an asset to our group,” Jeonghan offered.

“Mingyu’s super helpful to have around. He’s really good at cooking and cleaning, too,” Seokmin added excitedly.

Jeonghan clapped his hands together. “Perfect, Seungcheol is always too lazy to clean up after his parties.” 

“Bold statement coming from the biggest contributor to the mess,” Seungcheol retorted. 

“As exciting as that sounds, we have no plans to party on a school night, and certainly no plans to help with clean up duty,” Mingyu cut in. “I’m sure your group is great, but I’m not that interested.”

Jeonghan and Seungcheol turned towards him in sync. “Excuse me?”

  
  


“I can’t believe we actually came,” Mingyu groaned as they walked up to the house, disco lights flashing and rap music blaring from inside. “Why did I let you drag me here?”

“You shouldn’t have insulted their group,” Seokmin said, shaking his head with a tsk. “And I hate to break it to you, my friend, but you love parties.”

“Not as much as you do.”

“We enjoy parties for very different reasons.”

“Oh?”

“I love the music and the dancing. You love,” Seokmin paused, considering. “The people. That sounds about right.”

Mingyu scoffed. “It’s called socializing. That’s the whole point of parties. If you want music, just play some songs in your room and dance.”

“Hey, I didn’t say there was anything wrong with coming for the people.”

“Whatever.”

Mingyu pushed the door open, giving a small nod to the swarm of people crowded against it. “There’s definitely way more people here than just the group members.” 

“Maybe they like to fill up the entire stage.” Seokmin winced as he pushed through the mass of sweating, jumping bodies to enter the house.

They found Jeonghan in the kitchen, surrounded by a large group hanging onto his every word. The older boy cheered when they entered. “The main guests have arrived!”

“Hi hyung,” Seokmin said, waving brightly to the others as he handed over the gift he had prepared. 

“Yah, you shouldn’t have.” Jeonghan peered into the bag. “Look at how considerate my baby is. Seungcheol loves ice cream.”

“Is this Seokmin?” someone asked.

“Ah yes,” Jeonghan perked up. “He’s gonna be auditioning for Seventeen next week. Let me introduce you to the members here.”

“Is this nepotism I’m sensing?” one of the boys commented dryly. Seokmin glanced at Jeonghan anxiously, but the older boy only laughed.

“You’ll regret that statement once you hear him sing,” Jeonghan said. He gestured to the boy who had just spoken. “This is Jihoon, our main producer and one of our vocalists. Don’t mind his humor. It takes a special mind to get it.”

Seokmin seemed like he would be occupied for a while, so Mingyu shrugged and melted into the crowd, letting himself get lost in the sensations. It was almost overwhelming. Bodies pressing up against his. The heavy thrum of the bass. Thick sweat and perfume mixed in the air. Just enough light to see outlines of strangers in front of you. Seokmin was wrong. He loved parties for these feelings. 

A girl with long brown hair pulled into a tight ponytail slid up next to him. Someone who looked vaguely familiar handed him a can of beer. He let himself get sucked into the flow.

  
  


Mingyu waited a few seconds after the girl left before checking his hair in the mirror and opening the door again. He spotted a few people coming down the hall and nodded politely as he made his way back towards the main hall. A few seconds later, he was making eye contact with the one and only Xu Minghao.

“Minghao!” he called, feeling a wide grin spread across his face. “Should’ve known you were secretly a wild party animal.”

The other boy looked pained. “Not quite. I’m more like the designated driver.”

Mingyu laughed, gesturing to the dark hall. “Is that why you’re hiding back here?”

“Ah, I was actually trying to find a bathroom but realized I probably shouldn’t go into random rooms.” Minghao shrugged. “Would rather not walk in on something I shouldn’t see.”

For a moment, Mingyu panicked, wondering if Minghao had seen him leaving the room. “I don’t really care what people are doing, I just hate awkward situations.” Minghao continued, unintentionally relieving Mingyu’s fears. For some reason, he really wanted the other to like him. _Besides_ , Mingyu thought, _Minghao doesn’t really seem like the type to judge._ He’d had far worse reactions than an “I don’t care” before, even though Seokmin would never complain about his activities.

“So, Xu Minghao, my elusive and chronically tardy classmate, what do I have to do to get a text from you?”

“I’ve been late like three times,” Minghao said with a glare. Mingyu decided not to point out that they’d only had about five classes. “And I’m hoping to survive this party first.”

“Well, I’m sorry you got dragged here,” Mingyu said. “Do you want to…”

“Want to?”

Mingyu couldn’t read the other’s expression clearly in the dark, but seeing as Minghao was still talking to him, he decided to go for it. “If you can’t leave, wanna have some fun with me?”

“What makes you think I would have a better time with you?”

“Were you having a good time before?”

“I don’t exactly mind music and dancing,” Minghao said carefully. “Just not around strangers.” 

Mingyu’s heart lifted. It was an offer. “I’m not a stranger.”

“Debatable.”

Barely registering his own actions, Mingyu reached out to grab Minghao’s wrist. Somehow, he felt like this is what he should do. Flashing what he hoped was an encouraging look, he pulled the other back to the main hall. For a moment, Minghao stood stiffly, glancing wearily at the people around them. “You said you like dancing. Show me what you got.” Mingyu said, gently nudging the other with his shoulder. He couldn’t help smiling as Minghao adapted slowly to the music, clearly trying to hide how much he enjoyed it.

Minghao frowned when he noticed Mingyu’s reaction. “Are you laughing at me?”

“No, of course not,” Mingyu said, quickly throwing out some messy moves of his own. “You’re good.”

The crowd surged forward, pushing Minghao closer. Instinctively, Mingyu placed his hands on the smaller boy’s shoulders protectively. He tried to ignore the leap in his chest when Minghao looked up to meet his gaze. This boy was seriously gorgeous. “Careful there.”

Minghao rolled his eyes but kept bouncing on the beat. “It’s not about being good, it’s about feeling the music.” 

Mingyu dropped his hands but stayed close to Minghao. Before he could speak, a loud shout interrupted him. Jeonghan had jumped up on a chair, holding a megaphone. “Clear the way, you unworthy lot. Prince Hoshi is here to show you what real dance is.”

The song switched abruptly to a heavy dance track. A circle opened up in the crowd, and a blonde boy jumped into the center, clapping his hands to hype up the onlookers. Mingyu expected Minghao to try to get away, but the smaller boy moved forward instead, craning his neck to get a better look as the dancer spun and twisted with powerful movements.

  
  


Mingyu had been hoping for a chance to talk to Minghao again, but the other had remained entranced throughout the entire dance battle that took place after Jeonghan’s introduction. As the crowd broke up afterwards, a tall boy with a wide, goofy grin dragged Minghao away, clinging to his waist. “Xiao Hao, where have you been,” the boy said, attempting to kiss Minghao’s cheek. “I’ve missed you.”

“Not again, how much did you drink,” Minghao groaned, failing to escape the boy’s grasp. He spotted Mingyu’s confused expression and flicked the boy’s forehead lightly. “This is Jun, he’s the one I’m babysitting tonight.”

“How can you babysit when you’re a baby,” Jun said with a giggle. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you.”

“Yea, yea,” Minghao said, patting the other’s arm. “I better get this guy into bed before he does something he regrets.”

“Oh? Who’s this cutie?” Jun peered curiously at Mingyu.

“Hi?” Mingyu waved hesitantly. “Do you need any help getting back?” He really should not have offered, given he had no idea where Minghao lived and couldn’t exactly just ditch Seokmin. An extra stop on their way home wouldn’t hurt, though. Seokmin was kind enough to not mind. In fact, he’d probably be even more adamant about making sure Minghao got home safely.

“Yes, take me home,” Jun sang, still draped over Minghao’s shoulder.

“It’s okay, I can manage. We’re not that far.” Mingyu had expected that answer, but he still felt bad letting Minghao go alone.

“If you say so. You have my number if you need anything.” An idea suddenly popped into his head. “Will you text me once you’re safe?”

Minghao looked suspicious for a moment before bursting into an adorable giggle that made Mingyu feel all sorts of funny. “I guess I can, since you let me have fun with you tonight.”

Mingyu couldn’t help the wide beam that took over his face at those words. Minghao had thought it was fun. He felt like he was glowing the whole way home.

  
  


“And then he said it was fun!” Mingyu threw his arms around Seokmin as he recounted the night’s activities to his friend.

“Okay, I got it, I’m happy for you,” Seokmin said, laughing at Mingyu’s excitement. “I can’t believe you still haven’t introduced this boy to me.”

“I want to, as soon as possible,” Mingyu said earnestly. 

“Aren’t you glad I forced you to come now?”

“Definitely. I owe you. I’ll love you forever, best friend.” Seokmin pretended to gag as Mingyu pressed closer to him. 

“What about him’s got you so excited, anyway?”

Mingyu frowned. “Honestly, I’m not sure. He just seems so chill and real, you know? It’s comfortable.” A buzz from his phone interrupted his next thoughts.

“Home,” the message read curtly, as expected of Minghao. Then another one, “Thx for tonight.” Mingyu squealed and shoved his phone in Seokmin’s face.

“Oh geez, I don’t think you’ll be able to fall asleep for a long time tonight.” Mingyu agreed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried my best to write some feelings this time, but it didn't quite come out how I wanted it to. Definitely going to keep working on that in the coming chapters. Let me if you have any suggestions or feedback in the comments!


	4. Fresh start

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minghao and Jun recap last night's events.

Minghao woke up to a stinging slap in the face. His lower back ached, and his hazy mind barely registered the weight of someone else’s leg draped across his body. With a loud groan, he rolled over only to be greeted with the terror of Jun’s eyes-half-open sleeping face.

Jun jumped up at Minghao’s shriek. “What’s going on? Who’s being attacked?” he sputtered, his arms flailing around defensively.

“Me, I’m being attacked!” Minghao said indignantly, effectively frightened awake now. “Has anyone ever told you that you sleep like you’re being possessed?”

“You’re exaggerating. I’m sure it’s not that bad.”

“It is that bad.”

“How could this cute face ever be scary.” The older boy placed hand under his chin, batting his eyelashes. Minghao did not hesitate to chuck a pillow at him.

“Gross. Hurry up and get dressed.”

Jun stumbled lazily into the kitchen as Minghao finished setting out the bowls. “Porridge is ready. Come eat.”

“Thank goodness, you’re a blessing Minghao.”

“Glad you know. How’s the head?”

“Aching but I’ll survive.” Jun dug into his bowl quickly. “You got any chili oil I can put in this?”

“Just eat,” Minghao said, shaking his head. “You have a class to get to soon.”

The older boy gave him a cheeky grin. “I’m so lucky to have you.” Minghao rolled his eyes. “Where’s your roommate by the way? Still avoiding you?”

Calling Taejin his roommate was a stretch. After quickly determining that Minghao was not quite on par with his social level, the other barely returned to the apartment outside of crashing for the night. “Probably hanging out with his band of rich kids again. He definitely had a wilder night than we did.” Honestly, Minghao couldn’t care less about how Taejin spent his time. Even if the other guy barely bothered to remember his name, as long as they weren’t fighting, coexistence was bearable. At least he didn’t bring any of his late night activities home with him.

“How was last night by the way?”

“For you or for me?”

“For you, of course. I vaguely remember seeing a cute guy.” Jun cast a mischievous look. “Have you been hiding someone from me?”

“What cute guy?” Minghao tried to keep his voice even, despite knowing exactly who Jun was talking about. The teasing would be endless if Jun found out that Mingyu was the same boy who’d saved him in stats. He tried to shake the “I had fun too” and “Let’s hang out again sometime” texts he’d received last night from said cute guy out of his mind.

“You know, brown hair, puppy eyes.” Jun frowned, eyebrows pinching together as he tried to remember. “Or wait, was it black hair, glasses, and sharp eyes? Who was that?” That was news to Minghao. Perhaps Jun’s night had been more interesting than his.

“Oh? Who’s hiding someone now?”

The two stared at each other, equally confused, until Jun let out an ear-splitting screech. Minghao winced. “Hyung, seriously? Even if Taejin is out, I have neighbors.”

“HaoHao!” Jun seized the younger and shook him by the shoulders. “I messed up. Big time.”

“Not this again.” Minghao would've been more concerned if he didn’t notice the telltale signs of Jun being overly dramatic. The wide eyes, big hand motions. When Jun was truly anxious, his movements got smaller, not bigger.

“How could you let me do this?” The whining boy pouted with wide eyes.

“As if I could stop drunk Jun from doing anything.” Minghao sighed, giving up on his stew to face Jun’s pitiful expression. “What’s wrong now?”

“It was him! My research lead!” 

Minghao tapped his ear, wondering if he had misheard. “Your research lead? How does he have anything to do with this?”

“The cute guy. It was my research lead.” Jun collapsed into Minghao’s lap. “I accidentally hit on my research lead last night. How can I face him now?” “

Gently patting Jun’s head, Minghao tried to calm the other down. “There, there, I’m sure it will be fine. He probably won’t even remember. When’s your next meeting?”

“Tomorrow,” Jun groaned. “Please just lock me away forever so I don’t cry from embarrassment.”

“Are you sure it was him though? Why would your research lead even be at the party? I thought he was a master’s student.” Minghao didn’t know much about research, but he was pretty sure that teams were normally led by at least graduate students, if not the professor themselves.

“I thought he was. It turns out he’s a freaking senior. He hasn’t even graduated! And worse, he’s my age.” Jun said the last sentence with such disgust, as though being the same age as the other was a personal attack on his character.

Minghao, on the other hand, couldn’t help but be impressed. “Woah, so he skipped two whole grades. Doesn’t that mean he’s crazy smart? Isn’t that a good thing?” 

“Of course not! That makes his arrogance and selfishness even more insufferable.”

“I dunno, maybe you could learn a thing or two from him,” Minghao said with a shrug and slight smile. 

Jun lifted his glass of water threateningly and mimed throwing it. “Don’t give me that smug look.”

“Alright, alright. But you thought he was cute though?”

“I did not.”

“You literally just said you did. You said he was the cute guy.”

“I did not.”

“Maybe you’re just jealous of him.”

“Me? Jealous?” Jun sputtered indignantly. “I have nothing to be jealous of. Here,” he said, pulling out his phone. “Look at his Insta and tell me if you think he’s cute.” 

“Ooh,” Minghao nodded approvingly as he scrolled through the feed. “Wonwoo is his name? He dresses so clean.” Jun grimaced. “And he likes cats!” After a few more photos, Minghao finally looked up with a wide grin. “Ge, he’s really just your type, huh?”

Jun choked mid-chew. “Are you kidding me? That’s your takeaway?” Snatching his phone back from Minghao, he said with a huff, “He’s most certainly not my type. Your taste is terrible. End of discussion.” He pointed at the clock. “You’re gonna make me late to class.”

“Okay,” Minghao giggled, deciding to let his friend off. Jun’s face was already glowing red like it did after a few drinks. “Are we eating lunch together later?” 

He frowned at Jun’s guilty reaction. “Sorry, I still have stuff to take care of today.”

“Seriously?” Minghao let a small whine slip into his voice, much to Jun’s delight.

“Oh my cutie, I’m so sorry,” he said, reaching out to tickle the younger boy. “I’ll make it up to you. You said you wanted to join the dance club, right?”

Minghao’s face lit up. “Really?” His gaze turned suspicious. “You better not be tricking me.”

“The first meeting is tonight. I’ll meet you after class so we can head over together.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the shorter chapter, as I was a bit busy this week and couldn't get the dance club scene how I wanted! Hope you enjoyed some cute JunHao moments. I've always adored the China line dynamics. Next week's chapter will be a bit longer to make up for it.


	5. Show me what you got, boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minghao meets Mingyu's gang and has a nice game of volleyball. Dance club practice doesn't go quite as expected (I'm so sorry Minghao :( ). Also disclaimer, I am not a dancer or volley ball player and know nothing about either, so I apologize for any inaccuracies.

“Oy, Xu Minghao!”

The Chinese boy whipped around when he heard a loud voice shouting his name. Across the commons, an excited Mingyu stood waving his arms wildly. “Come sit with us!” Minghao stood frozen, gazing longingly at the perfect empty table in the corner where no one would disturb him. Mingyu, however, seemed to have made another decision for him. “Get over here!” the ridiculously tall boy yelled again, causing heads to turn.

Minghao flushed, feeling too many eyes on him, and scurried over with his head down. Mingyu, oblivious to the attention he had attracted, quickly introduced Minghao to his friends. There was Seokmin, a constantly smiley character, Seungkwan, a clear diva, and Jeonghan, who kept cooing at Seokmin adoringly.

Minghao took an instant liking to Seokmin, who was practically radiating happiness. He beamed as Minghao greeted the group politely, and Minghao felt a little trapped in the other’s bright gaze. He could only breathe normally again once Seungkwan started telling a story about an embarrassing moment in his English class. He had apparently fumbled a basic phrase during a practice conversation with the teaching assistant from America. As the other boys teased him, Seokmin interrupted in excited English, “Hi! Nice to meet you!”

Seungkwan didn’t miss a beat, following with, “Hello, how are you?” 

“My favorite food is pizza!”

“Oh, pizza? You like pizza?”

“Pepperoni pizza!”

Minghao giggled at Seokmin’s antics, earning him a weird look for Mingyu. “What?”

“Someone’s in a good mood today. Did something nice happen recently?” Mingyu wiggled his eyebrows. “Maybe a good-looking guy hanging out with you at a party?” he asked with an expectant expression.

“Hm, I don’t know about any good-looking guys,” Minghao teased. He quickly broke and giggled as Mingyu’s face wilted into a pout. “I’m kidding. There’s just a dance club meeting tonight that I’m looking forward to.”

“Cool! You dance?” Seokmin perked up. “Hey, you should consider joining this really cool performance group, have you heard of Seventeen?”

Mingyu groaned. “Not you, too! How did Jeonghan get you so quickly?”

  
  


Minghao had been set on rushing to the studio as soon as he finished gulping down his lunch, but Mingyu’s group seemed to have other plans. “Volleyball?” Seungkwan said, raising his cup of water.

Seokmin clinked his cup with Seungkwan’s. “Call!” Turning to Minghao, he asked, “What are you doing after lunch? You should join us.” Seeing Minghao grow flustered, he added, “No pressure of course. I totally understand if you don’t want to have to spend any more time around Mingyu’s ugly behind.” 

“Ah, I’ll join,” Minghao quickly responded before Mingyu could murder Seokmin with his glare. “I’m just … with volleyball.” He looked down, chewing his lip.

Mingyu jumped to reassure the other. “No worries, we just like to play around. None of us are actually good.” 

Seokmin nodded in agreement. “One time in high school, Mingyu tried to pass the ball and hit himself in the face.” Seungkwan and Jeonghan burst into laughter as Mingyu slapped a hand over Seokmin’s mouth to prevent the other boy from exposing him further.

“Hey, that was right after midterms. I was tired,” Mingyu protested. He heard a squeak from the side and looked over to see Minghao with his lips tightly pursed, trying to hide a laugh. “Minghao, you traitor, don’t laugh!”

Seokmin fought free from Mingyu’s grasp to add, “And then after that, he tried to punch the ball but missed!” The last line finally sent Minghao over the edge into a fit of giggles as Mingyu pretended to pummel his best friend.

“Whoa.” Seokmin pressed a hand to his open mouth, gazing at Minghao with wide eyes. “Mingyu was right, your laugh really is-” Unfortunately, his next words were cut off by Mingyu pulling him into a tight headlock.

“Don’t worry about him, he likes to tease.” 

Before Minghao could ask further, Jeonghan frowned. “We have an odd number of people though.” He typed rapidly into his phone. “Seungcheol says he can’t make it, but one of my other friends is down!” Giving Minghao a mischievous grin, he added, “With Shua around, you definitely don’t have to worry about your volleyball skill.”

“Yay, Minghao, I’m so excited!” Seokmin whooped, throwing his arms around the other boy. Minghao let himself get pulled along with the rowdy group, a warm feeling spreading in his chest as Seungkwan cracked another ridiculous joke.

Shua turned out to be a blue haired boy that Jeonghan enjoyed teasing even more than he did with Seokmin or Seungkwan. Seungkwan’s mouth dropped wide open, eyes taking on a haunted look, when he saw the other boy walk onto the court. “That’s my English TA,” he whispered urgently, gripping Mingyu’s arm tightly. “What is Jeonghan doing with him? Get him out of here! Hurry!” 

A look of understanding dawned on Seokmin’s face. “Ah, Jeonghan mentioned that one of his close friends is from America.” 

Seungkwan squirmed further, desperately trying to hide behind Mingyu’s tall build, as Joshua approached. “Oh, I hope he doesn’t remember me.”

“Stop embarrassing yourself, you’re making it worse,” Mingyu hissed, pulling Seungkwan next to him as Jeonghan did introductions. The younger boy stumbled forward with a yelp, almost crashing straight into Joshua.

“Hi,” Seungkwan said with a timid wave.

“Hi,” Joshua replied, a slight smile on his face. They stared at each other awkwardly until Seokmin decided to have mercy on Seungkwan. 

“Alright, let’s decide teams.”

“Minghao’s on my team,” Mingyu called. “Unless you don’t want to,” he whispered, but Minghao shook his head with a small laugh. 

“Shua, Seokmin, and I will be a team,” Jeonghan declared, reaching for the others, who scattered quickly.

“There’s no way I’m gonna be on a team with Yoon Jeonghan,” Joshua said defiantly, shielding Seokmin from Jeonghan’s attacks. “I’m taking these two, you go over there.” 

Jeonghan shrugged and joined Mingyu’s group. “Sorry to interrupt you two lovebirds.”

“Hyung!” Mingyu protested.

“Anyways,” the older boy went on, cutting Mingyu off. “We better win.” He raised his voice a notch. “Well, there’s no way we can lose when Shua’s on the other team.” Resuming in a normal volume, he added, “but I’m competitive, so I wanna win by a lot.”

They took up their positions, with Mingyu and Jeonghan towards the front and Minghao serving in the back. Despite what Mingyu had said, most of the boys were pretty good players, especially Mingyu and Seungkwan. Mingyu was naturally good at spiking the ball thanks to his tall height, and Seungkwan made up for his lack of height with impressive dives. 

Minghao had never had a particularly good experience with volleyball before. He didn’t know why he couldn’t just hit the ball right. He cringed as it went wide whenever he made a hit, but here Mingyu always chased after it in a flash, expertly hitting it back into the court.

“Minghao, let’s get it!” Jeonghan cheered as the ball flew towards Minghao. The words were barely out of his mouth before Minghao hit the ball backwards. “Yes, good job!” the older boy choked out through a fit of giggles. Even Minghao couldn’t stop himself from snickering.

The other volleyball hole was Joshua, who kept trying to use his feet and rarely moved to chase after the ball. “Oh, Joshua!” Seungkwan complained as Joshua let another ball fall to the ground just inches from him. The older boy had barely bothered to reach towards it. 

“Ah, sorry, sorry,” Joshua quickly apologized. He mimed setting the ball. “I’ll do a better job next time, promise.”

Minghao had his doubts about Joshua’s true skill, however, especially after Jeonghan mocked him for one particularly far miss. On the next volley, Joshua neatly spiked the volleyball straight towards Jeonghan’s face. “Waah!” Jeonghan threw himself to the side, barely escaping with his nose intact. Across the court, Joshua let out a loud cheer.

“Yoon Jeonghan, this isn’t dodgeball. You’re supposed to hit the ball, not run away from it!” Mingyu called.

Jeonghan pointed a finger at Joshua accusingly. “You did that on purpose.” Turning to Mingyu, he protested loudly. “He was trying to take my head off!”

Joshua pressed a hand to his chest, instantly taking on an innocent look. “How could I ever? I’m barely even good enough to hit the ball in the right direction.” Meanwhile, Seokmin and Seungkwan fell over themselves in laughter.

“Joshua is really an ace,” Seokmin said with an approving nod, giving the older boy a thumbs up.

Between Joshua’s laziness and Minghao’s clumsiness, the teams were pretty evenly tied. “Minghao, come here, I’ll show you how to spike,” Mingyu said, gesturing for the other to come forward. He demonstrated the arm motion and tossed the ball to Minghao to let him try a few times. “You got this.”

The next volley ended when Joshua instinctively jerked his knee up to save the ball. “Thanks, Shua!” Jeonghan called sarcastically. “Match point! Let’s go!”

Mingyu served the ball high over the net, and Seokmin scrambled to save it, barely hitting it over the net.

Time slowed as Minghao watched the ball come towards him. He positioned his arms like Mingyu had shown him and shrieked as he made contact with the ball. “Minghao, nice!” Jeonghan pumped his fist into the air, watching the ball sail into the opposite court. Seungkwan dove towards it but fell short as the ball bounced just inside the bounds.

“Boo Seungkwan!” Seokmin shouted. The younger boy was bowed down, apologizing profusely, while Joshua cracked up on the side. Meanwhile, Jeonghan high-fived Minghao and patted him on the back.

“Minghao! Good job!” Mingyu said, running towards Minghao with his arms open wide. Before he knew what was happening, he felt his stomach swoop as he was lifted off the ground, giggling helplessly as Mingyu’s arms squeezed tightly around his waist. “I’m so proud of you.”

“Hey, hey, stop that over there!” Seokmin had run over from across the court. “Next time I want to be on Minghao’s team.”

“Okay,” Minghao beamed.

“No way,” Mingyu interjected.

Minghao was practically glowing by the time he met with Jun after class. For someone who rarely chose to engage in any physical activity besides dancing, he had enjoyed the volleyball game a lot. His classes, although somewhat boring, had gone smoothly, and he still had a dance practice to look forward to. 

“Xiao hao, please calm down a little bit,” Jun said, unable to believe how hyper Minghao was. He rarely got to see the younger boy like this, suddenly clingy and affectionate, a goofy smile plastered on his face.

As they walked into the practice room, a blonde boy rushed over. Minghao recognized him as the impressive dancer from last night’s party. “Junnie!” The boy yelled, embracing the other in a tight hug. “I’ve missed you.”

“We saw each other last night,” Jun said with a laugh. “Here, I’ve brought someone to meet you. This is Minghao, your new fan.” 

“Oh?” The boy turned to Minghao with interest. “Nice to meet you. I’m Soonyoung, but a lot of the dancers call me Hoshi,” he introduced himself with a bright smile. The younger boy’s face was quickly heating up as he tried to hide behind Jun, who moved away unhelpfully. “Come on, don’t be shy, are you a dancer? What styles do you like?”

“I used to be a bboy,” Minghao said. “But I’m interested in hip hop too.” 

Soonyoung grinned. “Well, hip hop is what we’re all about here, and the bboy team is always looking for new members.”

“Hip hop is the club’s main performance style, and Hoshi’s the leader of the hip hop team as only a sophomore,” Jun explained proudly. 

“It’s not that big of a deal,” Soonyoung said modestly.

“It is a big deal,” Jun continued, gently teasing the other. “Anyone here can tell you what an amazing dancer Hoshi is.”

The dancer made a choking sound and scurried away, muttering about needing to start class. Minghao turned to Jun. “Look, you scared him away.”

“That was my intention. Now hush, pay attention.”

Watching Soonyoung jump into teaching mode, Minghao felt like he was meeting a new person. In place of the squirming, loud jokester was a confident performer who clearly knew his way around hip hop. It also quickly became clear why he had been chosen as a leader despite his age. The older boy’s upbeat flow gave Minghao an inescapable urge to dance his heart out. As Soonyoung led the group through a new routine, Minghao fell entirely into the moves.

“How was it?” Soonyoung asked, coming over to the two Chinese boys. 

“That was amazing,” Minghao said earnestly. The obvious excitement on his face made Soonyoung break into a laugh. “My back is so sore though,” Minghao added with a groan.

A concerned look appeared immediately on Jun’s face. “Oh no, what happened? Did you lift something heavy yesterday?”

“Yea, you.”

“Oh.” With a sheepish grin, Jun gently massaged Minghao’s back. “Sorry, you know how I am when I get into party mode.” He pouted slightly. “You aren’t mad at me, are you?”

Minghao hid a smile. The older boy could be so unwittingly cute. “It’s fine. I’ll forgive you since you brought me here today.” He turned to Soonyoung. “Is that all we’re doing today?” He tried to not let the disappointment show on his face. While the class had been everything he hoped for, he felt like he could keep going for at least another hour.

Soonyoung had to stop himself from laughing again at the younger’s cute expression. “Don’t worry, we’re just getting started.” He nodded at Jun. “Let’s go.”

“We’ll be breaking into groups now,” the hip-hop leader announced before listing the different teams. Jun was leading the modern team, while someone Minghao didn’t know was leading the break dance team.

Jun gave Minghao’s arm a squeeze as the members grouped up. “Have fun break dancing.” Leaning closer, he whispered, “Be careful with Dohyun. I’ve heard some scary stories about him, but apparently he’s crazy good.” 

“If he’s good, that’s all that matters.”

Despite saying that, Minghao couldn’t help but feel uneasy as this Dohyun guy lined the new members up and studied them with a piercing gaze. “I hope you’re not here thinking that break dance is just some cool party trick. I’ll be showing a quick demo of the kind of stuff we do here. If you’re a beginner, don’t expect to be learning these kinds of moves for a long time. And the learning process will hurt, so be ready.” 

As the music started playing, the leader launched into a series of spins in the air and on the floor, following up with rapid footwork. Most of the new members looked stunned. Minghao had to admit that the guy was really good at breakdancing. He could probably train them into an amazing team, if only he wanted to help others learn, which did not seem to be the case.

Turning with a wicked glint in his eye, Dohyun gestured to the team members behind him. “If you think you got something, come out and show us. The current team will be evaluating. Make sure you give us your best.” He stared down the line. After a few long moments, a handful of boys, including Minghao, stepped forward.

The first poor boy who took the challenge attempted some interesting moves, but his balance and power were clearly off, as if he had just learned a few stunts from a video without any dance training. Dohyun stopped him after about ten seconds. “Enough, enough,” the team leader sneered. “That was an eyesore. You call that dancing? Go back to level zero and learn the basics.” The boy gulped visibly, nodded once, and quickly stepped back.

The next boy clearly had dancing experience with strong fundamentals, but his style was much closer to hip hop and locking. “Okay, that’s wrong,” Dohyun interrupted, holding up a hand. He pointed to the paper on the door, which read “Break Dance Team.” “Maybe check that you’re in the right room buddy.” 

The boy rolled his eyes. “Screw this, like I’d want to be part of a team with a leader like you,” he muttered before leaving the room.

Dohyun didn’t even spare him a second glance before turning to Minghao. Just then, Soonyoung walked in, and Minghao thought he might be saved. “What’s with that guy?” Soonyoung asked, pointing towards the door.

“Oh, he was in the wrong room,” Dohyun said dismissively. “Do you need something?” Minghao resisted the urge to scoff at Dohyun’s lie.

Soonyoung frowned slightly but didn’t push it further. “Just checking in, how are things?”

“Fine. We’re just checking out the new members’ moves.” Dohyun gestured roughly at Minghao. “This guy was about to go.”

“Ooh, Minghao!” Soonyoung clapped excitedly. “I’m excited to see this.” Minghao couldn’t help breaking into a relieved smile. Dohyun would probably still critique his moves, but at least he couldn’t insult him outright with Soonyoung around.

As Minghao stepped forward, however, a loud voice called from the hall. “Yah! Hosh! We need you over here!”

Soonyoung jumped up. “Ah, coming!” he patted Minghao on the back as the younger boy tried to beg him to stay with a desperate look. Unfortunately, Soonyoung did not seem to get the message. “Take care of this one, I expect great things from him.”

“We’ll see about that,” Dohyun muttered once Hoshi was out of earshot. He scanned Minghao with a look of distaste. Minghao tried to keep his expression friendly even as his heart sank. 

The leader’s face remained expressionless throughout Minghao’s entire routine. When he finished, a few of the other members clapped hesitantly. Dohyun stopped them with a sideways glance.

“Where did you learn to dance?” he snapped sharply at Minghao.

“I had a team back home that I used to practice with.” Minghao said, feeling on edge. He couldn’t read Dohyun’s mood, but he could tell it wasn’t pleasant.

“That’s what I thought. All your moves are so mechanical,” Dohyun said, mouth twisting into a sneer. “It’s obvious you’ve been taught in a nice, safe classroom. There’s no authenticity or artistry in your style.” He rolled his eyes with a look of disgust. “Dancers like you never have any originality.” 

“Dohyun,” one of the other members said in an alarmed tone.

Dohyun brushed the warning off, putting a hand on Minghao’s chin and leaning closer. The younger boy was too shocked by the cruel mocking to respond. “Try going into the streets for a month or two, pretty boy. I bet you won’t survive even a week.” Dohyun stepped back, looking bored. “Next.”

Minghao stared down at the ground as it blurred in front of him, biting hard on his lower lip.  _ Do not cry. Do. Not. Cry.  _ He would absolutely not give Dohyun the satisfaction of seeing how much his words bothered him.

“Alright, that’s enough for today. I hope only those who are sincere will come back next week,” Dohyun declared. Minghao waited until everyone else had left before approaching him. The leader raised an eyebrow. “Got something to say, pretty boy?”

Minghao wondered if it was smart to challenge the other boy head on but decided he couldn’t just take the insults. “I’m just wondering how you’re so certain about what kind of dancer I am after seeing only a few seconds of my routine.”

The older boy shrugged. “It’s different. Someone who’s never learned by themselves in the streets would never know.” 

Minghao felt his frustration rising, but forced himself to calm down. “Can’t you teach me that? How do you know I can’t learn it if I try?”

“Stuff like that can’t be taught in a university club,” the other retorted.

“Then tell me where to go and I’ll learn myself.”

Minghao met the older boy’s hard gaze, and then Dohyun broke the contact with a humorless laugh. “I could tell you, but how about I give you some real advice, pretty boy.” He laid one hand on Minghao’s shoulder. “A pretty boy like you is best off just sticking to the flashy stage moves. Go join those so-called hip hop performances. Don’t try to get tangled up with something you can’t handle. Some people just aren’t meant for real break dancing.”

Minghao stood there a long while after the other had left, a million thoughts swirling through his head. Why was Dohyun so adamant in his judgment? Even though the leader had been harsh to the other new members, he hadn’t put down their whole style or who they were as a dancer. And there was no way Hoshi would’ve kept a leader who recklessly criticized people for no reason. Which meant, maybe Dohyun could see something. Was there really something wrong with the way he danced?

“So HaoHao, was it everything you dreamed of,” Jun sang, casually draping an arm around his friend’s shoulders as they left the studio.

“Get off,” Minghao muttered, shrugging the other away. 

“Aw, what’s wrong?” Jun reached out to tickle under his friend’s chin but only earned himself a slap on the wrist.

“Nothing’s wrong,” the younger boy snapped. Jun frowned. While he knew Minghao had never been the soft and cuddly type, he still played along with most of the older boy’s jokes. He was also not short-tempered, almost always polite and considerate. Sure enough, Minghao sighed after a moment and added, “I’m just tired.”

Jun understood the underlying apology and squeezed the back of Minghao’s neck gently. “Okay, Hao, you know I’m here for you.” Minghao nodded, and Jun knew he wouldn’t get anything else out of him. “Sleep early today.”

Despite how great the first half of his day had been, Minghao couldn’t help the tears that he buried into his pillow that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Longer chapter to make up for last week! Things are finally starting to happen, so thank you if you've made it this far. Please let me know what you think in the comments!


	6. The sun, why is it so hot? My heart, why is it so cold?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mingyu has trouble getting Minghao to open up, Jun's lab life with Wonwoo, and Joshua and Minghao bond over art.

Squeezing his eyes shut, Minghao held in the urge to let out a frustrated wail. He would rather pound his head into the desk than look at his crumpled paper for another second, already full of eraser markings and crossed out writing. No matter what he did, the numbers wouldn’t come out right. The equations just felt off today. Or maybe it was his mind that felt off, thoughts tangled hopelessly in his head. Even the way he sat in his chair felt off, shoulders heavy and legs placed too awkwardly.

He thought about texting Jun for a rescue, but the older was probably busy with research and school work. Plus, he didn’t want to bring the cheerful boy down. He couldn’t cling to him like a lost child forever. _This is why you should’ve made friends in your classes_ , Minghao berated himself. _Then you wouldn’t be struggling by yourself right now._

With a groan, he pulled himself up and fled out of the suffocatingly silent library. Hopefully a steaming cup of green tea would make him alright again. At the very least, it would give him some energy and warmth. As he dragged his feet down the sidewalk, he tried not to let his mind wander to unpleasant thoughts, but he couldn’t help noticing the other carefree, blissful students, living the glorious university life. Maybe he didn’t deserve that. He had chosen this, after all. His misery amplified as a biting wind blew past, making him curse himself for not bringing a jacket when he left today. 

He was shivering by the time he got to the cafe. Tugging his cap down over his face, he prayed he wouldn’t see anyone he knew. All he wanted was to get his tea and then rush back to his problem set. Thankfully, there was no line, and the student worker who took his order did not try to make small talk. Feeling guilty at his cold attitude, he dropped a few coins in the tip jar as he moved to wait for his drink. 

The cafe was not too crowded, but it sounded full with the constant chatter and cheerful music playing in the background. A loud shout rang across the store, followed by hoots of laughter. Minghao glanced over only to spot Mingyu surrounded by a group of students he didn’t know. They seemed to be in the middle of a heated discussion, board game abandoned on the table. Minghao studied the other’s open laughing expression, eyes crinkled as he latched on to the person next to him for support. He wondered what could make the other boy laugh so hard. Mingyu barely calmed down before he was leaning in closer to say something that made the group crack up again. An unexplainable emotion snuck into Minghao’s chest, and he couldn’t tear his eyes away, even as the barista announced that his drink was ready. 

Like he could feel someone watching him, Mingyu turned to glance around the store. His eyes locked onto Minghao.

Minghao’s heart jumped. He whipped around, thanking his barista for the drink before rushing towards the door, chest pounding. From the periphery of his vision, he saw something headed towards him and picked up his pace, jogging to the door. Shouts of “Mingyu?” and “Where are you going?” reached his ears.

He was already two steps out the door when a firm hand grabbed onto his arm, forcing him to a halt and almost making him drop his tea. “Minghao?” He looked up into Mingyu’s puzzled face. “It is you.” A radiant smile, maybe the warmest one Minghao had ever seen. “Thank goodness, I thought I had grabbed the wrong person for a second. Imagine how awkward that would’ve been.”

“Yea, it’s me,” Minghao muttered. “Do you need something?” He regretted the slight snap in his voice immediately when Mingyu flinched and released his arm, but he couldn’t take back the harshness.

Even if he was hurt, the other’s smile still remained. “I was just wondering why you ran away from me.” He peered closer at Minghao, trying to read his facial expression, but Minghao turned his head quickly. “Is everything okay?” 

Somehow, Mingyu’s genuine concern made everything feel ten times worse. He didn’t want to be the perfect shiny boy’s pity case. “I’m fine, I’m just,” Minghao choked out, trying to keep his voice level. “Busy.” Under the other’s worried gaze, Minghao felt himself breaking, hating everything about the moment. He bit down on his tongue, desperate to not let any tears come out, horrified at himself for showing this side to Mingyu. Crying in front of others, especially if he didn’t know them well, felt so needy and weak. 

Just when he thought he might bolt, run first and explain later, warmth surrounded him as Mingyu wrapped him gently in his arms. “Hey, it’s okay, buddy. Breathe.” Mingyu’s voice was soft and low by his ear.

Minghao’s whole body instinctively stiffened up as the other held him, practically engulfing the smaller with his height. His brain had frozen completely. It felt wrong, Mingyu’s lemon scent filling his senses and the other’s cheek just a hair away from his own. But even while Minghao thought that he should be panicking, he felt his shoulders loosen as a hand rubbed his back gently.

This was ridiculous. With a long sigh, Minghao finally managed to speak. “I’m fine, it’s nothing.” He pressed a hand on the other’s chest, just enough for Mingyu to step back carefully. His hands lingered lightly on Minghao’s shoulders, making him feel so small.

Minghao shivered involuntarily at the loss of heat. For a long moment, there was only silence. Mingyu looked like he wanted to stay something, but Minghao didn’t think he could handle more. “I should, uh, probably go.” He motioned to the cafe. “You can go back to your friends.”

Mingyu frowned, still looking concerned. “Are you sure?” Minghao nodded, rubbing his arms. He hoped Mingyu would take the hint that he wanted to head back quickly and get out of the cold. “Wait here for just a moment,” the other boy said instead. He rushed back into the shop and quickly returned carrying a denim jacket with fluffy lining. Before Minghao even understood enough to protest, Mingyu had thrown the jacket around the smaller boy’s shoulders.

“I don’t-”

“Please just take it,” Mingyu said with a small smile. “I think you need this more than I do.” _His eyes are so soft_ , Minghao thought.

“Thanks. You should go.” He could see a few of Mingyu’s friends peering at them from inside the cafe and pulled his cap lower. 

“I’m going, I’m going, gosh.” Mingyu turned to head back. “Hope you feel better soon.” Minghao watched the other boy enter the shop before wrapping the jacket tighter around himself and starting back to the library.

Mingyu watched the boy outside tug the jacket around himself, pulling himself inwards. He looked so cold and small. As much as Mingyu wanted to hold on to him, the other seemed like he wanted some time alone. “I guess you’re still keeping me out huh?” he muttered. “And here I thought we’d made progress yesterday.” He thought of the other pushing him away gently and headed back to his friends with a sigh.

“Mingyu! We wondered if you were coming back,” one of the guys teased. “Who was that?”

“Ah, so sorry.” Mingyu gave a sheepish smile. “Just saw a classmate I know. Where were we?”

Jun slumped over as he tried to absorb the material of the paper he was currently reading. Sometimes, academic writing really drove him crazy. No matter how much he underlined and annotated, he couldn’t quite piece together what they were trying to say. Plus, Saturday afternoon was not his ideal productivity time. Saturday afternoons were supposed to be spent napping away peacefully, wrapped in warm covers, or paying his favorite Chinese restaurant a visit with Minghao, spending extra time to talk to the auntie who always gave them extra dumplings. He brightened a little at the thought, just in time as Wonwoo walked in. He was already here, there was no point in moping around. Plus, no one gave as much precious time to the lab as Wonwoo did.

“Yo Wonwoo! Let’s have fun today,” he said, waving to the other. Wonwoo, as usual, gave a rather emotionless response, simply nodding curtly. Jun couldn’t understand how someone could stand to be so robotic all day long, but he decided it was probably due to the extremely study focused lifestyle Wonwoo had. 

His attention drew to the shorter boy following behind the research lead. His hair was dyed a light brown, and he wore a ridiculous rainbow hoodie under his lab coat. He looked like he could’ve been a foreigner, but when he exchanged rapid words with Wonwoo, Jun thought the other boy’s Korean sounded better than his own.

“Hey everyone, meet the freshman who will be joining our lab this semester,” Wonwoo announced. He motioned for the younger to introduce himself.

“Hi! I’m Choi Hansol, but you can call me Vernon.”

“Jun, help Vernon get caught up with what we’re working on,” Wonwoo said. “I’ll be back shortly.” The freshman gave Jun a nod, a slightly spacey look in his eyes. Feeling a protective urge, Jun quickly hurried over to give an explanation of their lab’s work and where things were.

“If you ever need to get rid of poison, you can dump it into this disposal here because it can handle literally anything.” Jun glanced around the lab. “Oh, and I guess I’ll show you the samples we’re working on right now. Have you read Professor Kim’s papers?” 

Vernon nodded. “Yes, Wonwoo assigned me two of Professor Kim’s and two others last week.”

“Ah, that’s a lot. Reading is hard,” Jun said, glumly looking over at his half finished paper. He leaned in closer and whispered conspiratorially, “Honestly, you can kinda skim over them, you don’t have to understand every last detail.”

“Can’t believe you’re corrupting the freshmen already,” Eunbi, a junior majoring in biosciences, cut in. 

“I’m helping!” Jun protested. “Wonwoo gives us so much reading, he could probably construct a 20 page literature review on the spot.”

“Don’t bad mouth Wonwoo while he’s out.”

“I wasn’t bad mouthing him, I was saying he’s thorough. That’s a fact.”

Eunbi rolled her eyes. “You know what you meant.”

“Well, you can’t deny that the man is ridiculously detailed.”

“That’s what makes him good,” Eunbi retorted. “There’s a reason the professor trusts him even though he’s so young. His work is careful and accurate. Observations, flawless. Analyses, precise down to the last significant figure.”

“Yes, yes,” Jun said, heaving a sigh. “Truly a professor’s dream. I pity the person he marries.”

“There are plenty of people who are interested in Wonwoo.” 

“And yet, here he is every Saturday, spending quality bonding time with us.”

“It’s because he’s focused. If he ever put any effort into that kind of stuff-”

“I hope you guys aren’t gossiping,” Wonwoo said stiffly as he stepped back into the lab. “We have tight deadlines to make, unless you love me so much that you wish to spend the whole weekend spending quality bonding time with me.”

“Of course I do! Let’s have a sleepover,” Jun perked up. Eunbi elbowed him sharply in response.

“You’re making us look like little kids, fighting in front of the freshman,” she hissed at him.

Jun gave a sweet smile in return. “We are kids.” He turned to Vernon, who looked somewhere between scared and amused. “You’re seeing our true selves right now. I hope you don’t mind.”

“No, not at all. Thanks for showing me around, Jun-ssi.”

“Jun, come help me with these slides.”

“Coming!” Jun called. He winked at Vernon and hooked an arm around the other’s shoulders. “You can call me hyung. Make sure to stick around for a great time.”

“Sure, hyung.”

Minghao found himself back in the art building, laid out on one of the couches with a book. His thoughts were half in the story and half lost in a daydream. The temptation was strong to just lay back and let himself drift into sleep, Mingyu's soft jacket spread under his head like a pillow. The faint lemon smell washed over him, reminding him of gentle hands on his back and shoulders. He was almost to dreamland when he heard chatter coming towards him. 

Joshua and Jeonghan rounded the corner and stopped when they saw Minghao. “It’s Mingyu’s friend!” Jeonghan greeted him. “What are you doing here? Are you an arts major?”

Minghao nodded. “Visual arts is my second major.”

“Ooh, what do you work in? Can we see some of your stuff?” Jeonghan said, clapping his hands.

Minghao buried his head shyly at the other’s excitement. “I mainly do painting and drawing. I’m not sure if you’d want to see my stuff. It’s kind of...not that nice to look at?”

“Ehh, I’m sure you’re great!” 

“Jeonghan, stop pressuring him.” Joshua said, nudging the other gently.

“It’s fine,” Minghao said with a smile. “Why are you guys here though? Are you guys also visual arts majors?”

“Oh not me,” Jeonghan said quickly. He pointed to the other, “Shua here is a photographer. A lot of his work is actually posted around here.”

Minghao stared at Joshua, feeling like he should be remembering something. “Ah!” He ran down the hall and pointed to the photo. “Yoon J taken by Hong J, that’s you!” 

“Nooo, not that embarrassing picture,” Jeonghan cringed. “I told you not to use that one.”

“That was the happiest one,” Joshua said with a sideways grin.

“What do you mean? I look so down in this picture, there were so many others where I look better,” Jeonghan protested.

“I know, but this one made me the most happy. You can put up the other ones when you make your own display.”

Jeonghan glared. “You’re only saying that cause you know that’ll never happen.”

“‘Then just sit still and be my pretty model,” Joshua said, patting the other’s face gently. 

Jeonghan thrust his face closer to Joshua’s, holding his gaze. “I only do it because it’d be a shame to let this face go to waste.” Minghao made a strangled sound at that comment, and the two turned their heads toward him in unison, seeming to suddenly remember that they weren’t alone in the hall.

Joshua dropped his hand quickly, swallowing sharply as he turned away, the tips of his ears turning red. Jeonghan remained unabashed. 

“Ah, I’d love to stay and play a little longer, but I have to run to class,” Jeonghan said, glancing at his phone. He nudged Joshua. “Come to my room later.” 

“Okay, hurry and go.”

“Bring some food with you.”

“I will.”

“Don’t miss me too much.” Jeonghan blew the other a kiss. “Love you.”

“Aish, go to class already!” Minghao giggled as Jeonghan waved before skipping off. Joshua shook his head, still with a smile. “Stay away from that guy, you hear me, he’s trouble.”

“Then why are you friends with him?”

Joshua sighed. “I didn’t know what kind of guy he was back then. It’s too late to get away now.” He looked at Minghao. “Do you have anywhere to be?” Minghao shook his head. “Want to hang out with an old guy like me?”

“You’re like two years older than me.” 

“Exactly, practically a different generation,” Joshua said, a serious look on his face. “What do you want to do? What do the kids even do for fun these days?”

Minghao paused mid eye roll when an idea hit him. “If it’s okay, can I see some more of your work?” he asked eagerly.

“My work?” Joshua tilted his head. “Alright, but don’t have too many expectations.”

“I love what I’ve seen so far.” Minghao really meant it. He had felt so drawn to the strong feelings he got from Joshua’s pictures of Jeonghan, maybe because of the tight bond between the two. “Seriously, the pictures of Jeonghan were amazing.”

“Alright, stop flattering me, let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure if anyone noticed, but I posted a bit later this week because I was having a hard time getting the emotions right. This chapter originally had two more scenes, but I really wanted to get the right feeling for them, so they've been postponed to next week. I hope you will look forward to those! As always, please let me know what you think in the comments.


	7. Getting Closer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soft Hao hours are open. Joshua and Minghao have a heart to heart in the studio, where Joshua tells all about his friendship with Jeonghan and Seungcheol. Mingyu and Seokmin get to steal Minghao away for dinner and movie night.

Joshua led Minghao over to a studio classroom and pulled out a stack of photos. “Here’s a series I’m working on now. I still haven’t figured out exactly where I’m going with it.” He spread them out on the table in careful order. Minghao took a seat next to him on one of the high stools.

The first set of photos was from matriculation night, taken from behind a crowd of students, gazing up at the fireworks above them. “This is your matriculation night, actually,” Joshua explained. “I was thinking about how when you first come to college, it’s all about looking ahead. All the new students are so excited about making friends and starting fresh in a new place.” He tapped one photo, a thoughtful expression on his face. “When I first came to college, I felt so lost because I could only think about the place I’d left behind.” 

Minghao stared at the photo as Joshua’s words resonated in his mind. The first week had been especially painful, watching all of the other students’ parents drop them off with promises to visit soon, feeling disconnected from all of them, wondering if he had made the right choice for the millionth time, praying that everything would work out. He felt the other boy gazing at him gently and looked up to meet his eyes. “I guess I don’t have to explain that to you, huh,” Joshua said with a wry smile. Minghao nodded. Luckily, Joshua moved on to the next set of photos instead of pressing him about his feelings.

These were taken on the track, with the largest one depicting a boy sprinting around a curve. He had a look of desperation that Minghao recognized from his own back-breaking hours of dance practice. “This was Seungcheol’s first practice back after his injury,” Joshua said, tracing the boy carefully with his finger. “One day he was smashing the sophomore record, the next he could barely walk due to stress fractures.” He turned to Minghao. “Have you ever not been able to do something you wanted to do more than anything else?”

Minghao’s mind jumped to not being able to dance or draw. “Sounds suffocating.”

“I think so too. I can’t pretend to fully understand how he felt, but at the time, all I knew was to keep praying that he could run again. Even Jeonghan started praying with me.”

“Must’ve been a sight.”

“It was, although not for reasons you might think,” Joshua said. “Jeonghan seems like that on the outside, lighthearted and easygoing.” Minghao hummed in agreement. It was hard to see the playful older student as anything but that as he pranked Joshua with a new Korean phrase or teased Seokmin and Mingyu.

“He’s actually always been the type to feel deeply, but he’d rather wall everyone out than let anyone get a glimpse of that side of him.” Joshua sighed. “But I guess everyone has moments when your emotions get to a point where you can no longer control them.”

Minghao hadn’t, and he couldn’t imagine it. “Have you felt that way?”

“Too many times,” Joshua laughed as he pulled out the next set of photos. Minghao wondered how he could laugh about something that sounded so terrifying.

These pictures captured a woman holding a bag of dumplings. “Ah, this is when Jeonghan’s mom came to drop off food. She must’ve made like a hundred of those, plus five huge buckets of kimchi. Here, I have another picture with everything.” Minghao’s eyes widened at the sheer amount of food in the photo. “She traveled hours just to bring that to us. She even asked me for my mom’s recipe so she could make me some like home.”

”That’s a lovely idea,” Minghao said softly, trying to focus on the photos and not think of his own mom.

Joshua nodded. “She’s probably where Jeonghan gets his soft side from, though he’ll fight you if you ask.”

“You really understand him, huh?” Minghao tried not to smirk when the older boy faltered slightly, stumbling over his next words.

“Can anyone fully understand Jeonghan?” Joshua said, raising his eyebrows. “Sometimes I think I almost do, but then he does something that totally trashes my expectations.” His expression grew a little sadder. “The only people who truly understand him are the ones he lets in, and I only know of two so far.”

Minghao instantly sensed that he had misstepped and wanted to comfort the older, but he hesitated with his hand in the air. He’d never been good at dealing with even his own emotions. Instead, he drew Joshua’s attention away to another photo: Jeonghan’s mom laughing with Joshua as they set the table together, her hand placed gently on his shoulder. 

“Ah, I didn’t take that one, obviously,” Joshua said, running a hand through his hair. “Jeonghan snapped that when I set my camera down for a second. Joked about me stealing his mom away.”

“It’s nice that you’re so close with his parents.”

“Yea, for sure. Jeonghan’s parents are super nice to me. They always bring me food when they visit and let me stay over during the holidays. They even said they would be my Korean parents.” Joshua shook his head affectionately before adding, “Seungcheol’s parents too. Seungcheol’s dad makes the best tofu stew.”

Minghao’s heart ached slightly at that. “I wish I could find that, both friends like Jeonghan and Seungcheol and that kind of belonging.”

“You will,” Joshua said sincerely. “When I first came, I didn’t think I would ever find friends who would accept me that much. Sometimes, I think I found a diamond in those two. But, you know, there’s a little diamond in everyone’s life, if you know where to look.” The tenderness in the older’s voice made Minghao want to believe him. He could almost see himself in the way Joshua described his past self, and he wondered if he would be able to look back as maturely by the time he was Joshua’s age. That wasn’t the kind of maturity gained through just living passively. Joshua clearly had a kind personality and strong empathy for others. Minghao couldn’t say the same about himself.

Shaking the thoughts from his mind, he pointed to the last photo. “What’s that one?” He recognized Seungcheol from the previous pictures and Jeonghan’s distinctive silver hair.

“Ah, that one’s not gonna be part of the series,” Joshua said, sliding it away quickly. “Enough of my stuff. You’re from China right? How’s it been so far?”

“It’s been,” Minghao hesitated, “okay, I guess, I’m managing.”

“It’s hard, right?” Joshua said with an understanding smile. “Dealing with a new language and a new culture.”

“That much I can handle,” Minghao said, inhaling briefly, unsure. “But there’s more.”

“Mm, more happening up here?” Joshua tapped the side of his head. Minghao nodded, still struggling to line his words up in the right order without sounding weak or desperate.

“Maybe something like trying to figure out if you made the right decision. Wondering if you should head back before it’s too late?”

“That’s exactly it,” Minghao said, his shoulders slumping slightly. It sounded more straightforward once Joshua had said it aloud. “I’m not ready to close the door yet.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Joshua said, his voice gentle. “You don’t have to do that yet. You can wait until you’re ready.”

“Did you feel that way when you came here, hyung? Like you were leaving behind a potential life in America.”

“Of course,” Joshua said with a heavy sigh. “Even now, I still wonder occasionally.” He looked at Minghao seriously. “But I don’t want to live looking behind me. If I feel like I can always go back, I’ll never be able to push forward properly.” 

“Push forward, huh?” Minghao wishes he could do that, be strong enough to continue confidently and fearlessly.

“Are you interested in photography?” Joshua said, putting the photos away and pulling out another box. 

“I’ve never really gotten a chance to try it before. I guess I like looking at photos.”

“You should try it.” Joshua said, taking a small camera out of the box. “When I look back at photos, rather than thinking about what I’ve left behind, it helps me remember all the things that helped make me who I am. Or reasons why I can stay strong.”

Minghao picked up the camera, and Joshua showed him the settings and basic functions.

“You can keep it.”

Minghao felt his breath catch for some reason as the older boy patted his shoulder. He never expected the older boy to be so generous without asking for anything in return, especially since they barely knew each other. He wished he could return at least some comfort to the other. “Thanks, hyung,” he managed. 

Joshua’s smile was a little sadder than usual when he said, “It’s nothing. You know you can come find me for anything right?” Minghao nodded. He didn’t think he could speak out loud right now.

He didn’t know why he just couldn’t stop the tears today. Minghao had headed for the painting studio as soon as Joshua left and now he sat curled up on a chair in front of his easel, face pressed to his knees, Mingyu’s jacket wrapped tightly around him. He froze mid sob when he heard a voice from the hallway singing something that sounded suspiciously like “Baby Shark.”

“Please don’t come here, please,” Minghao whispered desperately. His prayer went sadly unanswered as heavy footsteps stopped outside the door of the studio. Minghao practically flew out of his seat to crouch behind the rows of unused easels just before the door opened with a loud bang. He pressed himself down further, face nearly on the floor, as whoever came in pranced around the classroom. There was some rustling by the door, followed by more whistling and a rhythmic series of steps.

“Do you seriously have to do your dance in the middle of my sob session?” Minghao couldn’t help but mutter at the irony of the situation. As though they could hear him, the footsteps came closer and stopped just before his easel. He held his breath. For a second, he thought the person had spotted him and prepared to dash.

“Holy,” an impressed, somewhat familiar voice said. “This is insane.” A short whistle. “We got a professional up in here.” He heard the click of a camera shutter. A photographer. Hopefully they would finish and leave quickly. 

After a moment, the footsteps moved toward the counter, and Minghao could breathe again. He winced as he heard several thuds and the clatter of easels bumping into each other. “My utmost apologies, dear paintings.” Minghao briefly wondered what kind of person felt the need to apologize to half-painted canvases in an empty room. If he hadn’t been crying a minute ago, he might have risked taking a peek at who it was. He was almost certain he recognized their voice but couldn’t quite place it.

Currently though, Minghao was more concerned about his back beginning to ache as the other person continued to talk to himself, blissfully unaware of Minghao’s pain. “C’mon, get a little brighter will you,” the person muttered. A series of rapid clicks and keystrokes followed. “This shadow, please move just to the left, a little, a little, oops! Not that much.” The sound of window blinds opening and whistling, this time to the tune of “Let it Go”. 

Hearing the other person absorbed in their work, Minghao was just beginning to relax when he felt a sneeze coming. Panic filled his mind as he wrapped his hands around his nose and mouth. It felt like a tornado whipped through his head. Despite his best attempts, a small sound squeaked out.

The other person stopped moving immediately. “Hello?” The voice sounded spooked. After a moment of silence, Minghao heard the scuffling of rapid movement accompanied by a string of muttered curses. He caught the words “haunted”, “gosh darn”, and “I really liked studio.” Then, “Oh, shit” just before he felt something heavy drop onto his back. Minghao barely managed to hold in a groan.

The photographer had managed to knock over a whole row of easels.

As footsteps approached, Minghao debated whether or not he should give up and acknowledge the other person. He had just decided on pretending to be asleep when he made eye contact with a pair of bright eyes. Something in his mind finally clicked into place.

“AHH!” Another row of easels went down.

“Mingyu?” This guy always managed to show up at the worst times. Minghao stood up with a huff, hoping to hide how badly his knees were shaking. He was almost weak with relief. At least it was someone he knew. Maybe a friend. “Are you always this clumsy? Because I think we might need to ban you from the studio. For the paintings and for your own good.”

Mingyu stood frozen, his arms clutched to his chest. “Minghao?”

“Yes?”  
“You’ve been here this whole time?”

“Yes?”

They blinked at each other awkwardly. “Why didn’t you say anything when I first came in?” Mingyu asked, bending down to pick up the easels.

“I didn’t really want to have a conversation at the moment,” Minghao sighed, moving to help.

“Oh.” Then silence again. “Should I leave?”

“It’s fine.”

“It’s okay, I can come back later.”

“It’s fine, just stay.” Minghao could practically hear the gears in Mingyu’s brain churning, overheating from how hard they were working. Feeling sympathetic, he decided to put the other out of his misery. “So you’re a photographer?”

Mingyu’s face brightened. “I’m more of a videographer actually. Well, a person who makes videos, at least.” He motioned to his computer with a nervous giggle. “Wanna see some of my stuff?” Minghao peered over the taller boy’s shoulder as he hunted through the files. 

“Here’s a video I made for Seokmin last year. He needed clips of him singing for college apps.” Mingyu clicked on the file to open a video.

“What do you think?” Mingyu turned to the other boy, biting his lip. “Was it ok?”

Minghao had seen Seokmin and Mingyu’s tight friendship in person before, but he was still impressed by the level of care and affection expressed in the videos Mingyu had captured of the other. He gave Mingyu a small smile. “That was amazing. You have a good eye. And a warm heart.” Mingyu covered his face, giving Minghao a shove with his shoulder. 

“You can’t just compliment me like that.”

“I’m serious, I could feel how sincere you were,” Minghao said, suddenly self-conscious of how gentle the mood had become. Maybe some of the feelings were still left over from his conversation with Joshua. He could barely stand it. “So anyways,” he said, finally rubbing his eyes dry. “Was that Baby Shark you were singing as you came in?”

Mingyu’s mouth dropped open. “Hey,” he sputtered. “Can’t you just pretend you didn’t hear it?”

“Why would I miss out on this great chance to tease you? I think I heard some dance steps too.”

“It’s a cheerful song, okay? I’m a happy person. We match,” Mingyu explained, gesturing wildly. “Oh, stop laughing already.”

Minghao hid a grin as the other boy’s expression grew sullen. “And thanks.” Mingyu frowned further, tilting his head questioningly. “For not asking.”

“Ah, I mean, you aren’t obligated to tell me anything.” He paused, fidgeting, before attempting to make a menacing expression. “Although, if anyone’s hurting you, you better tell me who it is so I can beat them up.”

Minghao couldn’t help bursting into laughter at that, and laughing even harder at Mingyu’s offended expression. “I’m trying to defend your honor and here you are laughing at me!”

“I’m truly very grateful,” Minghao assured him. “I think it might be better if you just let me do the fighting and support me from behind though.”

“Fair enough.” Mingyu hummed. He batted his eyelashes slowly at the other. “Please protect your pretty cheerleader well.”

“I’ll do my best,” Minghao promised, doing his best to keep a straight face. His phone pinged then and he glanced over to check. 

“Sorry baby, Wonwoo’s keeping us late at lab so get dinner without me!” The text from Jun read with a sad puppy emoji. Minghao let out a deep sigh. He had really wanted to talk to Jun today too.

Mingyu looked at him curiously. “It’s nothing big,” Minghao explained quickly. “My friend just said he can’t make our plans tonight.”

“Oh,” Mingyu said. “Then, have you eaten yet?”

Minghao shook his head slowly. This couldn’t be going where he thought it was.

“Do you want to eat dinner with me and Seokmin?” 

That’s how Minghao found himself nestled into the couch, hours later, squished next to Mingyu with one of his legs draped over the other’s and Seokmin’s arms wrapped around his sides, his head leaning on Minghao’s shoulder. Mingyu had his leg in a tight grip as the horror movie ended with one last jump scare and corresponding wail from Seokmin. 

When the credits finally started rolling, Seokmin let out a content sigh and squeezed Minghao closer. “I like this. Let’s just sleep here for the night.”

“Easy for you to say, my side is going numb,” Mingyu groaned while Minghao fought to free his leg from Mingyu’s hold. The other boy let go with a frown and draped his back against Minghao in return.

“Aish, get off,” Minghao struggled to push them away. “I’m sweating a whole ocean here.”

“It’s okay, we don’t mind,” Seokmin said, closing his eyes as Minghao shoved Mingyu away with a push from his leg. The taller boy got up with a huff and turned to pull at Seokmin’s arm. “Ah, Mingyu! Why,” Seokmin whined.

“He said get up,” Mingyu snipped.

“He was talking to you.”

“He was talking to both of us.”

“He wouldn’t do that to me, right Minghao?” Seokmin turned to Minghao with a pitiful expression.

“I would,” Minghao said without hesitation, pushing Seokmin away. Mingyu laughed gleefully at Seokmin’s attempts to resist.

“Come on, let’s watch one more,” Seokmin said, hanging on to Minghao’s arm. “We can’t not watch a cheesy rom-com after this. How could we just end on a scary movie? Mingyu won’t be able to sleep tonight.”

“Hey! Don’t act like you’re any better.”

The “no way” was already halfway out of Minghao’s mouth when Seokmin turned his pout on full blast. “I guess, maybe one more,” he said, already sensing the regret he would have tomorrow morning as Seokmin lit up. “It better be a short one.”

Mingyu’s mouth dropped open. “You’re giving in to him? Just like that?”

“Stop repeating it. I don’t feel good about it either.”

“Yay!” Seokmin cheered. “I’ll pick out a movie. Mingyu, go get a blanket, it’s cold.”

Minghao popped up to fetch some more snacks when he saw Mingyu emerge from his room. “Are those bichons?” Minghao squinted at the soft, baby blue blanket decorated with fluffy white dogs.

“What? They’re cute.” Mingyu wrapped the blanket around himself with a bright smile.

“I got it for him for his birthday,” Seokmin said proudly. “Don’t you think it matches his personality?”

Minghao thought for a second. “Yea, I can see it.”

Mingyu’s mouth dropped open. “Hey! What’s that supposed to mean,” he protested as he followed Minghao over to the couch, plopping down next to him.

“There, there, just enjoy the movie,” Minghao said, fixing the other’s hair gently from where it had gotten ruffled by the blanket. “And stop pouting at me. It won’t work.”

“So Seokmin can do it but I can’t?”

“Exactly.”

Minghao shrieked as Mingyu tackled him then, covering his head with a blanket. “You’re so mean! I can’t believe you’re picking him over me already.”

“Will you two hush? The movie’s starting,” Seokmin whispered urgently, eyes already trained on the TV. “And give me some blanket.”

As it turned out, Minghao could barely follow the plot of the movie Seokmin had put on, since he probably spent more time trying to stop the two from fighting over the blanket than actually watching the movie. They finally settled it by squishing even closer together, Seokmin’s legs on top of Minghao, Minghao practically in Mingyu’s lap, too tired to protest. He was vividly aware of his shoulder pressing into Mingyu’s chest and attempted to sit forward, but the awkward position was too tiring to maintain for longer than a minute. 

“Sorry,” he mumbled in a half-hearted apology as he fell back against Mingyu, who shrugged and pulled Minghao closer into a more comfortable position, one warm hand coming to rest gently on his thigh, eyes never leaving the screen. The other hand tucked the blanket's edges into Minghao’s side. Minghao looked up at the other’s face, awash in blue light from the screen, the “thank you” frozen on the tip of his tongue. He wished that he could have snapped a picture of this moment. The warmth was comforting, even if he had complained about it earlier. 

The main leads seemed to have just been reaching a confession scene when Minghao felt himself drifting off into a peaceful sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in updates! There was a huge snow storm in my area, so we've been without power and wifi for a while. Luckily, I got plenty of writing done during that time, so I should be able to go back to my regular posting schedule if there are no more technical difficulties, although I might change to a Tuesday posting schedule moving forward. Hope you enjoyed this longer than usual chapter! As usual, please let me know your thoughts in the comments.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing, so please let me know what you think! I will try to post as often as possible, and at least every week.


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